


Where's My Homework

by auroraphilealis (athousandrosepetals)



Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Getting Together, Implied Sexual Content, M/M, Online Relationship, Sexting, Trust Issues, implied sexting, valentines day
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-15
Updated: 2018-02-15
Packaged: 2019-03-18 19:49:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,752
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13688598
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/athousandrosepetals/pseuds/auroraphilealis
Summary: Dan and Phil have a strictly online relationship only. But Phil doesn’t want it to be that way anymore. So on Valentines Day, he asks Dan to meet him.





	Where's My Homework

**Author's Note:**

  * For [janieetc](https://archiveofourown.org/users/janieetc/gifts).



> Written for [brilliantdan](http://www.brilliantdan.tumblr.com) for the phandomsecretvalentines in 2018! I really, really hope you enjoy the fic I came up with you. I tried to stick to the hints you inadvertently gave me on what kind of fic you would like, so I sorely hope this doesn’t disappoint!

It wasn’t really something Dan had ever thought of before, and yet the words were clear as day across his computer screen.

_Skaterboi: i want to meet u_

The harsh black lines of skaterboi’s text on Dan’s computer screen had never felt so threatening. The IM blinked at him, marked _read,_ but Dan didn’t answer. He could only stare in astonishment at the brazen request he’d always thought would remain an unspoken secret between the two of them; that they would want no one but each other, and they would never meet.

_Read 21:09_

_Skaterboi: plz?_

Dan’s hands were cold. He shoved them into the pockets of the hoodie he wore even here, in bed, hood drawn up to hide his face from his parents should they decide to walk in. They always did, checking in, disappointed, sternly informing Dan that it was time for bed.

He couldn’t speak, let alone type out a response, knowing as he did that he couldn’t say yes.

_Skaterboi: it’s valentines day tomorrow_

Dan closed his eyes. He knew what tomorrow was, how could he not? He and Phil - because that was skaterboi’s real name, something Dan had forced out of him three weeks in to their unusual friendship, unusual _relationship_ \- had been talking about what they would do for the first ever Valentine’s Day for months, long before Dan thought this thing could ever actually work.

And he _wanted_ it. He wanted, more than anything, to just give in and give Phil what he wanted, to come out into the open and see the boy he’d been in love with for months now, but -

But.

This was an online relationship. Nothing but a secret affair that no one knew about, and one that existed in nothing but their heads. Pictures and words sent between them that could be brushed away as nothing with the simple click of a button; _block_.

It was safety. It was security. It was what Dan had asked for from the beginning.

_Skaterboi: dan_

_Skaterboi: plz talk to me_

Dan didn’t know what to say. Phil had broken an unspoken rule that Dan had put in place at the beginning - _no matter what we say, no matter what we want, this remains here, Phil. Online. A computer screen between us. Always_.

Phil had agreed.

But now he was taking it back.

_Skaterboi: i know ur mad at me_

_Skaterboi: but i just. i cant do this anymore_

_Skaterboi: u have to face your reality eventualy. u have to trust evenetually_

_Skaterboi: i need this to b real_

_Skaterboi: ill be at the Starbucks on the corner of Shadeo and Coreo at 4pm tmro. if i dont see u, ill know my answer_

_**Skaterboi has logged off** _

Dan closed his eyes. He reached out and he shut his computer, because what else could he do.

**

It had started in the middle of June, just after Dan’s birthday where his ex girlfriend had showed up to his party with her new man on her arm. They’d been broken up for three months, and she’d laughed at him when he’d begged her to get out.

“Aren’t you over me by now? Come on, Dan, you can’t hang on to that forever.”

He’d caught her cheating on him in the middle of one of his theater rehearsals, with his best friend no less, but he hadn’t broken up with her. No, she had done that.

The words were still stark in the back of his mind, a stalwart echo of Dan’s heartbreak thrown into his face as if it were nothing, as if _Dan_ were nothing, and while he’d begged and pleaded and promised to not hold it against her, she’d kicked him out of her life for good.

How could he forget? How could he _not_ hang onto it forever? His weakest moments, thrown back into his face, at his own party where she had most decidedly _not_ been invited.

But that was here nor there.

Dan had decided never to date again, until he met Phil.

He was just eighteen. He’d been with the same girl for three years, his first love, the one he’d called his _soulmate_. He hadn’t wanted anything else ever again, hadn’t wanted to feel that pain as his heart was ripped from his chest, hadn’t wanted to find out the hard way that the one you loved couldn’t even be honest with you to your face. He hadn’t wanted to ever be put through that again, to be laughed at like he was a sideshow joke, so he’d walked away and he’d shoved his heart into a marble case and planned to never let it free again.

Except Phil.

He came along in the form of a wrong message sent to the wrong contact sent from an instant messaging system where Dan’s name was one of many that were the same: _danniboiii_.

He’d said _where’s my homework douche bag_ and Dan had thought, thank God I’m not in high school anymore, thank God I don’t have to face the assholes who steal your work and claim it as their own.

He’d sent back _got the wrong person_ , and Phil had said, _fucking shit. I’m gonna kill him!_

Dan hadn’t been able to help his curiosity, his innate desire to _defend_ welling up in him, and knowing he was just a faceless message on a screen he replied _maybe u should work on doing ur own homework from now on_.

Phil’s reply was forever seared into Dan’s mind.

 _Skaterboi:_ _u know right at this moment i kind of wish i was some kinda bully whod hit up some kid to do his homework but unforunately im not and the danny im looking for legit stole mine_

How that turned into a conversation that seemed to last a lifetime, Dan doesn’t know, but it _did_ , and somehow it graduated into pictures and text messages sent at every hour of every day until finally something broke inside of Dan and he ended up sexting Phil images of his own cum splattered against his chest and hot words of what Phil did to him and how bad he _wanted_. Oh, how he _wanted_.

He hadn’t expected Phil to reply in kind, texting an image of his dick, hot and hard and red and round, leaking precum that soaked into tented, black boxers matching Dan’s own. He hadn’t expected the words, the want, the expulsions of love and affection that peppered every sexy thing that Phil managed to type with one hand. He hadn’t expected the way his cock had come back to life and he’d been desperate for more, milking himself to a second orgasm to the words of Phil’s adoration, his lust and need and _love_.

But after, after, Dan had felt nothing but contempt at himself and he’d slammed his laptop shut and cringed as he realized he’d typed the words back, words he’d promised never to give away again:

_danniboiii: i love you too_

The rules had come next. The promises to keep it online. The desire to never, ever make it anymore real than they already had. The reassurances that yes, Dan had meant every last fucking word, that Phil was irreplaceable, someone Dan couldn’t live without, that he wanted to call his boyfriend and his lover and his partner in every sense of the word, but littered with insecurities and harsh words that Dan just couldn’t do it again - that this was all that he could give, and if that was not enough for Phil than it would have to end before it could began.

Some part of Dan had expected Phil to say no, but the soft _i need u_ had told him that Phil was something precious to hold onto, that Dan would do his best, and that he was lucky as all hell that Phil had said _yes_.

Still. They spoke. They talked about what they would do if they did meet, how they’d spend their time together, where their hands would go and what their mouths would do and how they’d hold each other and bring flowers and candies and chocolates and _bears_ , everything Dan could think of that said _romance_ and _love_ , all while Phil promised him even more - the goddamn _world_ in a life they could build together and time spent at home curled up and watching movies with popcorn and soda and nothing but their own solid bodies pressed against each other for the sheer reassurance that they were _there_.

Phil promised Dan his heart and his soul and his body and his words, and every time the words flowed like rain down Dan’s screen, he could do nothing but melt and believe and wish that Phil could be right and that one day Dan could _believe_.

But the rules. The rules, the rules Dan clung to like nothing else, that held him rooted in place and made him feel safe. The ability to distance himself, the ability to hold back, to keep something securely his and never give it away, if only there was a screen in the way.

A screen that Phil wanted to tear away.

**

Phil was twenty-three, a uni student whose classmate Danny had stolen some course work he’d been working on over the summer to turn in at the start of turn in an attempt to push further and get done faster with his masters degree. He’d messaged Dan because he’d added two too many i’s to an instant messaging screen name he’d thought he’d known pretty well.

Dan doesn’t mind. Even now, he doesn’t mind, because it set him on the course of meeting the best person he’s ever known.

Phil had a heart of pure gold. He was snarky and he kept up with Dan’s sarcasm in a way no one else could. He didn’t take Dan’s self-deprecation as a sign to run far, far away, but rather as another way to tease him and poke him until he was seeing the brighter side of things all because Phil had such a cheery outlook on life.

He knew how to break through Dan’s defenses, knew how to make him laugh but also get down on Dan’s level and joke and tease at the same time, pushing until the limits were so sky high Dan was surprised either man was still willing to speak. They invisible line in the sand never seemed to move, though, not really, neither male crossing that line beyond sarcasm and teasing to just plain old hurt.

It had been so refreshing to Dan. So, so refreshing, to not be made fun of or tiptoed around or spoken to in harsh tones that bellied anger and hatred masked by teasing and jokes that struck far more deep because Dan always knew they weren’t jokes.

Phil was something different, something new, and Dan fell so hard and so fast that it scared him.

**

They talked about anime, video games, music, and tv-shows. They talked about characters they loved and hated, characters they loved to hate, books that caught their interests and carried them through the darkest of times.

They talked about binge watching TV, crying their heart out to anime, and singing Muse into the middle of the night because the sweet tones of Matt Bellamy were the only sounds their minds could take.

Phil complained about his dissertation, and Dan complained about his gap year, and Phil whispered words of comfort over the soft keys of his keyboard in a promise that everything would be okay.

Dan believed him.

**

It had been months.

Dan’s eyes were gritty from lack of sleep. Dark bruises carved the fleshy skin below his eyelids, and his breathing was harsh and uneven.

It was Valentines Day.

Dan had been dating Phil for months.

Still, his hands shook as he manned the cash register at his shitty job he’d taken up for his gap year to get his parents off his back, and he couldn’t look the customers in the eye.

The computer was supposed to be his safe space.

He hadn’t meant to fall in love, and yet here he was.

His heart ached.

Dan wanted nothing more than to meet Phil in person, but fear held him back and he clenched his fingers around the rumbled note in his hand, only snapping out of it when he got a frightened gasp in return from the little old lady who’d handed it to him.

“Sorry,” he muttered, and shoved it into the cash register, pulling free her change.

“Sorry,” he muttered again as she rushed off to leave, because he felt numb and broken inside and all he could think about was Phil’s disappointed face when he realized that Dan wasn’t coming.

**

Phil had been the one to figure out they lived near each other. Phil had been the one to press. Phil had been the one to casually mention they were a mere twenty minute walk from each other, and that if Dan just let down his walls, they could touch for real.

Phil had been the one to call Dan out for catfishing him, had been the one to push, and prod, and make Dan open up.

Phil had been the only one outside of his classmates that knew why Dan didn’t trust, and just what Jessica had done to him.

But he was still asking for more.

**

Phil had dark hair. Ebony, black, raven, blue. It shows in the pictures he sent of himself like an emblem, a dark contrast to the paleness of his skin. His hair was long, beautiful, striking. He had a fringe, the same as Dan, emo style, covering eyes so dark blue they pierced with intensity.

Sometimes, Dan saw flashes of yellow, of green, when he was lucky enough.

The pictures didn’t do Phil justice, Dan was sure.

His lips were so pink. Pouty. Soft.

When he smirked, he looked sexy as hell, and Dan wondered how he hadn’t begged to meet him already himself.

But then he remembered his plans, his need. The fear, the rejection.

He remembered Jessica, and how she’d broken his heart, and he held back like the greedy motherfucker he knew himself to be.

He just wished that Phil could understand.

**

It was raining.

Dan hadn’t brought an umbrella.

The Starbucks was full to bursting.

Dan didn’t know what he was doing there.

Inside, he knew he’d find Phil waiting for him, and the ice around Dan’s heart began to melt.

He picked up his phone.

_danniboiii: please dont break me_

_Skaterboi: i wont_

_Skaterboi: dont u trust me?_

_danniboiii: i want to_

_Sakterboi: r u here?_

_danniboiii: yes_

_Skaterboi: come inside_

**

Phil had brought Dan back to life when he’d thought the end was near. Phil had made sure that Dan knew, and felt, that he was safe, and okay, and that no one was ever going to hurt him again. Phil had been the one to reassure Dan that he was worth something, that what Jessica had done to him had been wrong.

So Dan steps through the doors of the coffeeshop, and he stares through the crowds of huddled up people, and he finds dark black hair sitting on a sofa with his scarf and his jacket strategically placed on the seat next to him, blue eyes waiting, searching, landing, _finding_.

Dan’s heart nearly broke out into a run as it took in the light in Phil’s face.

His smile, it was like the sun had burst through the thunderclouds and decided to bless Dan himself on that wonderful day.

Dan took a hesitant step forward, and then another, knowing as he moved that he was making a conscious choice.

Just one last time, maybe he could give up his heart.

**

Dan’s footsteps were heavy. He could feel that his feet were dragging, and his heart was beating hard against his chest, wracking his against his ribcage like a wrecking ball.

Phil stood up, when Dan was a few steps away from him, and somehow, his smile grew more blinding.

“Where’s my homework?” he asked, when Dan came to a stop in front of him, mouth dry and eyes wide, and inadvertently, Dan felt a laugh bubble up in his throat.

The tense set of his shoulders softened, and while now his heart was in his throat, Dan suddenly felt _at home_.

Without missing another beat, Dan stepped forward into Phil’s open arms, and held on tight.

~fin~


End file.
